Kim Taylorhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/kim-taylor
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 11:25:07 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 11:25:07 -0500The latest news on Kim Taylor from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylors-startup-ranku-2013-6Ex-NBA Dancer Ditches Fashion Startup And Instead Launches An Online Education Startuphttp://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylors-startup-ranku-2013-6
Thu, 20 Jun 2013 08:04:00 -0400Megan Rose Dickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51c1f65c69bedd4d3700000e-480-/kim-taylor.jpg" border="0" alt="kim taylor " width="480" /></p><p>Kim Taylor, one of the stars from Randi Zuckerberg's "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" reality TV show on Bravo, is launching a new startup.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But it's not Shonova, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11">the fashion startup she began working on last year</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>During meetings with potential investors, sometimes their eyes would start to glaze over, Taylor told Business Insider. Taylor took that as a sign that Shonova probably wasn't going to work.</p>
<p>So just a few weeks ago, Taylor scrapped the idea, just a week before the planned launch for Shonova.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Taylor had been working on Shonova since last year, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11">after she quit her job as head of sales at Ampush Media</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"There were a few tears," Taylor said. "It was sad, but necessary."&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">It was necessary partly because education has always been one of Taylor's passions. She also has a background in working with universities that offer online degrees.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">In fact, she came up with the idea for her education startup Ranku back in 2009.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Once Taylor decided to close Shonova's doors, she did a week of soul searching. During that time, she also met with a handful of people working in the education space, and ended up connecting with top-notch accelerator TechStars.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">TechStars and Kaplan recently teamed up to launch an education accelerator, but the application deadline had long passed at that point.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Luckily for Taylor, TechStars and Kaplan said they would make an exception for her if she could get a team together. It also helped that Taylor had great references.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Within two weeks, Taylor convinced her childhood friend and former ice hockey teammate to quit her wildly lucrative job as the senior director of education policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to join Ranku as a co-founder. Taylor also brought on board an engineer and user interface designer, and convinced her brother to help out, too. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">With a team in tact, she received her term sheet.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">As part of the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, TechStars invests $20,000 in each company.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The three-month program <a href="http://www.kaplan.com/newsroom/pressreleases/pages/pressreleases.aspx?p_p_id=pressreleaseportlet_WAR_kaplancomportalportlet_INSTANCE_0F8l&amp;p_p_lifecycle=0&amp;p_p_state=normal&amp;p_p_mode=view&amp;p_p_col_id=column-2&amp;p_p_col_pos=2&amp;p_p_col_count=3&amp;_pressreleaseportlet_WAR_kaplancomportalportlet_INSTANCE_0F8l_jspPage=%2Fhtml%2Fpressreleaseportlet%2Farticle.jsp&amp;_pressreleaseportlet_WAR_kaplancomportalportlet_INSTANCE_0F8l_groupId=13712&amp;_pressreleaseportlet_WAR_kaplancomportalportlet_INSTANCE_0F8l_articleId=195445">officially started this week</a>, but Taylor and her team are already moving full force ahead.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Ranku's official launch date is June 25.&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The idea behind Ranku is to help non-profit colleges and universities with online degree programs compete against for-profit universities. At the same time, it will serve as a resource for people seeking more information about online degree programs.</span></p>
<p>If you do a Google search for "online degree programs," you're going to see a lot of results from for-profit schools like DeVry, the University of Phoenix, and Everest University.</p>
<p>But there a ton of top-notch schools with full-degree online programs that may not wind up on your radar if you stick to a Google search. &nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">On Ranku, each school has its own profile page full of features of the college, program offerings, professors, student testimonials, and related schools. Eventually, users will be able to see information regarding actual job outcomes of graduates.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>Ranku is also partnering with universities. Already, it has top-notch universities like the&nbsp;<a href="http://rossieronline.usc.edu/">University of Southern Califorina</a>, <a href="http://onlinemba.unc.edu/">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a>, and <a href="http://online.nursing.georgetown.edu/">Georgetown University</a> on board as clients.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There are now numerous startups today tackling the education space, like massive online open course (MOOC) startups like Coursera and Udacity.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"I was very adamant that we weren't doing a MOOC," Taylor says.</p>
<p>Taylor sees MOOCs as important in the education space, but says she finds the degree market much more interesting.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sure, there are jobs that don't require degrees. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-data-case-for-going-to-college-2013-5">But a recent report revealed that even with an increase in the number of college graduates, the premium in wages for them continues to rise</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ultimately, Taylor sees a lot of value in college degrees.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span><em>Disclosure: The reporter of this article attended the University of Southern California.&nbsp;</em><br /></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/anastasia-lengs-startup-makeably-2013-5" >Google Begged This Woman To Stay, But She Left To Start Her Own Company </a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylors-startup-ranku-2013-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-start-ups-silicon-valley-2012-11Bravo 'Start-Ups' Star: Some Of The Cast Members 'May Be Insane'http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-start-ups-silicon-valley-2012-11
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:55:36 -0500Megan Rose Dickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="https://www.businessinsider.com/image/50a669806bb3f7741a00000f-455-342/kim-taylor-startups-silicon-valley-nick-shah.jpg?maxX=399&amp;maxY=300" border="0" alt="Kim Taylor startups silicon valley nick shah" width="399" height="300" /></p><p>Bravo's "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" has received its fair share of reviews since premiering two weeks ago.&nbsp;</p>
<p>People&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/review-start-ups-silicon-valley">have criticized the reality-TV show</a> for not depicting an accurate, authentic view of life in Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>"The problem with Start-Ups is that there&rsquo;s absolutely nothing that&rsquo;s reflective of the place and culture that is Silicon Valley,"&nbsp;<span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/bloomberg" class="hidden_link">Bloomberg</a> Businessweek's Sam Grobart wrote. "</span>And that&rsquo;s the final shame of it, because someone could do a really interesting take on the Valley and what&rsquo;s going on there now."</p>
<p>But cast member Kim Taylor told <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/business-insider" class="hidden_link">Business Insider</a> that authenticity isn't really what the show is all about.</p>
<p>"The show isn&rsquo;t meant to represent all of Silicon Valley," Taylor says. "This isn&rsquo;t <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/pbs" class="hidden_link">PBS</a>. It&rsquo;s Bravo ... It&rsquo;s meant to represent the reality of six people, some of whom may be insane. Thus far they were alarmingly accurate about what I was going through in my life."</p>
<p>Regarding the feedback the show has received so far, Taylor says she is amused.</p>
<p>"No one laughs about it more than me, well, except maybe the New York tech reporters," Taylor tells us. "<span>It&rsquo;s a doc-com"&mdash;a hybrid documentary-comedy.&nbsp;</span>"It&rsquo;s supposed to be funny and over the top."</p>
<p><span><strong>Don't miss:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11#ixzz2CP7otWi3"><span>SPOILER ALERT: Bravo Reality Star Kim Taylor Quits Her Ampush Media Job To Start A Company &gt;</span></a><span><br /></span></strong></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-start-ups-silicon-valley-2012-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11SPOILER ALERT: Bravo Reality Star Kim Taylor Quits Her Ampush Media Job To Start A Companyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11
Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:40:32 -0500Megan Rose Dickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50a670e169beddcd6c00000a-401-300/kim-taylor-startups-silicon-valley-press-photo.jpg" border="0" alt="Kim Taylor startups silicon valley press photo" width="401" height="300" /></p><p>If you've been watching Bravo's new reality show, "<a href="http://www.bravotv.com/start-ups-silicon-valley">Start-Ups: Silicon Valley</a>," then you won't be surprised to learn that Kim Taylor has quit her Account Management job at Ampush Media.</p>
<p>Up next for Taylor: founding a company.</p>
<p>In the last episode, all signs pointed to Taylor's departure from Ampush. She butted heads with the social media company's founder, Nich Shah, when he insinuated that Taylor might not be well connected enough to promote Shah properly.</p>
<p>"He thinks certain people in the industry want to see a certain type of person [in my role]," Taylor said. "And that person is a gray-haired man that wants to take credit for all the s*** I actually do...It's insulting at its worst, and stupidity at its best," she added.</p>
<p><span>Based on Taylor's&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimataylor">LinkedIn profile</a><span>, she left her position as head of sales at Ampush in July 2012 and has been working at stealth fashion startup, </span><a href="http://signup.shonova.com/">Shonova</a>, ever since.</p>
<p>Taylor tells <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/business-insider" class="hidden_link">Business Insider</a> that her interaction with Shah captured by Bravo's campers did play a role in her decision to leave the company.</p>
<p>"The goals of a company change as they scale," Taylor tells us. "It&rsquo;s important to read between the lines. I&rsquo;m grateful for my time there and learned a lot but my future wasn&rsquo;t with them. There were a lot of things I wanted to accomplish that wouldn&rsquo;t happen as someone else&rsquo;s employee."</p>
<p>Taylor also says that she missed the early-stage company chaos, and felt that she had outgrown the company.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"For women it&rsquo;s important to know when to walk away," Taylor says. "If you are undervalued, underpaid or not getting promoted you need to evaluate what your next move should be. Don&rsquo;t wait for opportunities. Take them. No one is going to do it for you."</p>
<p>Check out the interaction between Shah and Taylor below:</p>
<p><iframe width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" src="http://www.bravotv.com/video/embed/?/_vid2606783"></iframe></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-taylor-bravo-startups-silicon-valley-quit-job-to-start-shonova-2012-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>